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Two Railroads Across America and the One James J. Hill Built Without Land Grants The first transcontinental took federal bonds and land and ended in scandal, while Hill's Great Northern took neither and survived the panic that broke rivals. The Side Business Test, How to Know Whether Your Idea Can Pay Its Own Way Price, variable cost and fixed cost tell you whether a business idea can pay for itself, shown with a labeled home-bakery example and the traps around it. From Kitchen Table to Open Sign, the First Steps of Starting a Small Business Ten plain steps from a skill and a customer to a legal, funded, properly booked small business, with the free help that exists to get you there. SEC v. Jarkesy Put the Jury Back Between Citizens and Agency Courts The 2024 Supreme Court case holding that the Seventh Amendment guarantees a jury when the SEC seeks civil fraud penalties, and what follows. ESG investing with your pension money bends the fiduciary duty owed you A retirement manager owes you loyalty to your financial interest alone. Investing your savings to advance social goals breaks the duty ERISA set in 1974. Capital gains taxes and the lock-in effect that keeps money frozen in place Gains are taxed only on sale, so high rates freeze capital in old holdings, and because gains are not indexed, part of the tax falls on inflation. Executive Order 6102, the Spring Americans Were Ordered to Turn In Their Gold In April 1933 Washington ordered citizens to hand over most of their gold, a story every saver who trusts paper promises should know. The Austrian school in plain words, from Carl Menger to Friedrich Hayek Value is subjective, prices carry knowledge, and cheap credit causes booms that bust. The Austrian school explained, with the criticisms fairly stated. Coin Money and Regulate the Value Thereof, the Founders' Monetary Clauses The Founders gave Congress power to coin money and barred states from paper tender after the Continental collapsed. What the clauses mean for the Fed. A central bank digital currency is a dollar Washington could program A retail CBDC would give government a ledger of every purchase and the power to restrict or expire money. Here is how it works and why to refuse it. Gold standard, Friedman's rule or today's Fed, three answers compared Conservatives disagree about money. Here are five monetary regimes on one table, with a fair hearing for each camp before a verdict. The Fed's dual mandate and the 1977 law that gave it two masters Congress told the Fed to pursue maximum employment and stable prices at once. That double mandate invites tolerating inflation for jobs. The Great Inflation of the 1970s was a policy choice, not bad luck Inflation from 1965 to 1982 began with money creation and political pressure on the Fed before the oil shocks, and blaming OPEC lets policymakers off the hook. Bailouts and moral hazard, from Chrysler in 1979 to Silicon Valley Bank Every bailout teaches lenders that losses will be socialized. From Chrysler to Silicon Valley Bank, the habit grew, and a rule-based way out exists. The 2008 housing crash began with Washington's push for easy mortgages Wall Street bet badly, but federal policy set the table. The CRA, the GSE housing goals, cheap money and the 2008 conservatorship, with every cause weighed. The CFPB Is Funded Without an Annual Vote of Congress, and That Should Worry Us The purse is Congress's strongest check. An agency paid out of the Federal Reserve escapes it. A 7-2 ruling upheld the design, but that does not make it wise. From Savings Banks to Roth Accounts, a Timeline of How Americans Learned to Save Private thrift built American saving, and a few laws let ordinary workers own a nest egg. A dated timeline from the 1816 savings banks to the Roth IRA. The Contract Clause Once Guarded Your Deals Until a Depression Court Bent It For a century the Contract Clause kept states from rewriting private agreements. Then Blaisdell in 1934 let emergency open the door. Here is the history. Right to Repair Splits Conservatives Between the Farmer and the Contract Conservatives disagree over farm-equipment right-to-repair laws, and the cleanest answer may be to repeal one federal rule rather than add a new mandate. Solyndra to Amtrak, why government picks losers when it picks winners Washington says it can spot the next great company. Solyndra, Amtrak and Hayek's knowledge problem show why its bets fail more often and never close. The sugar program makes every family pay more so a few growers earn more Federal loans, marketing allotments and import quotas prop up U.S. sugar prices. Who gains, who pays, and why the food-security defense does not hold. Why gun makers are not sued for crimes, the 2005 law and the Mexico case The 2005 PLCAA bars suits blaming makers for crimes committed with lawfully sold guns. Its exceptions, the municipal suits behind it, and the 9-0 Mexico ruling. Corporate Activism Breaks the Deal Between a Company and Its Customers Companies that take political sides spend owners' money on executives' opinions. Friedman's 1970 essay and the stakeholder case, argued fairly. Big companies love the regulations their small rivals cannot afford Large firms often back new rules because compliance costs work as a moat against competitors, so more regulation can mean less competition. The regulation bill a ten-person company pays that a giant can shrug off A rule costs the same paperwork at ten workers or ten thousand, so it weighs most on small firms. The SBA studies, the 1980 law and the per-employee arithmetic. Seven Myths About DEI Programs, Including That Critics Oppose Diversity Seven common claims about DEI programs tested against the Civil Rights Act, the Fourteenth Amendment and the 2023 admissions ruling, with a verdict on each. The Home Front Built Ships in Days and Became the Arsenal of Democracy American industry out-produced every enemy in World War II, and the figures show what free enterprise can do when mobilized, controls and rationing included. Big Companies Can Afford Regulation, Which Is Why Some of Them Ask for More Compliance costs are largely fixed, so they fall hardest on small firms and protect incumbents. Stigler, Yandle and the Regulatory Flexibility Act explain why. The Defense Production Act of 1950 Is a Wartime Tool with Peacetime Habits Passed for the Korean War, the Defense Production Act lets presidents steer contracts and fund factories. Both parties now stretch it far past defense. Defense Contractors Do Not Start Wars, and Six Other Slogans Examined Seven popular slogans blame war on profit. Tested against the 1961 farewell address, budget shares and the 1990s consolidation, most of them fail. Six myths about robber barons, sweatshops and the age of capitalism The textbook Gilded Age leaves out that the so-called robber barons often got rich by cutting prices. Six popular claims, tested against the record. Milton Friedman's 1970 essay against stakeholder capitalism still wins A corporate executive who spends shareholders' money on causes is levying a tax no one voted for. Friedman's 1970 case holds up against the 2019 rebuttal. Profit is a signal, not a sin, and what a loss tells a company Profit and loss are the economy's feedback system, telling firms what customers value and what wastes resources. Government programs lack that signal. Pharmacy Benefit Managers, the Middlemen You Never Hired, Explained How rebates, formularies and spread pricing work, why a list price can rise while someone else pockets the gap, and why transparency beats a price board. Andrew Carnegie Went From Bobbin Boy to Steel King and Then Gave It Away A Scottish immigrant who started at $1.20 a week built the world's largest steel company, then gave his fortune away on principle, with Homestead on the record. Your Questions About the Code of Federal Regulations, Answered Plainly How the CFR differs from the Federal Register and the U.S. Code, how it is organized and updated, and how to find who wrote a rule and what is coming next. Thomas Edison's Menlo Park Was the First Invention Factory and It Changed Work Edison's real invention was the research laboratory, and Menlo Park shows how private capital, teamwork and honest failure built the modern economy. Greedflation is a story that skips the question of why greed took a break Corporate greed was as constant in 2019 as in 2021, so the real question is what changed to let companies raise prices. How America Built 2,710 Liberty Ships and Why It Could Not Do So Today Henry Kaiser's wartime yards launched Liberty ships in days, and the story shows an industrial base is a weapon and why rebuilding ours is a conservative cause. Friedman's 1970 Essay on Business Responsibility Still Answers Its Critics Friedman's 1970 essay says executives who spend shareholders' money on social causes tax without representation; read closely, it is no license for fraud. The corporate rate cut to 21 percent and the inversions it brought to an end Before 2018 the corporate rate was 35 percent and firms moved their legal homes abroad. Here is what the 2017 law changed, and the answer to the buyback charge. A Regulatory Budget Would Make Washington Count the Cost of Its Rules A regulatory budget caps the compliance costs agencies may impose, as an appropriation caps spending. How it works, the 2017 precedent and the objections. Why the corporate income tax is paid by people, and the only question is who A corporation is a legal form, not a taxpayer, so every dollar of corporate tax lands on shareholders, workers or customers. The only question is which of them. Matal v. Tam and the Government's Lost Power to Ban Offensive Trademarks The Court held that Washington cannot refuse a trademark for giving offence, and the reasoning protects every viewpoint, left and right. What the 2023 Beer Boycott Taught Corporate America About Its Customers A 2023 beer promotion cost a brand its title as top seller, and the lesson was about respecting customers, not about any person. The case, in full. Organized Retail Theft Is a Business Model, Not a Cry for Help Theft rings run on boosters, fences and online resale, so prosecutors should treat them as the commercial enterprises they are. The Jones Act, a 1920 shipping law that costs Puerto Rico and Hawaii A 1920 law says cargo between American ports must ride American-built ships, and the islands pay. The case for reform, with the defense argument heard first. Henry Ford's Five-Dollar Day and the Assembly Line That Built a Middle Class Ford turned the car into a worker's tool and then doubled pay to keep his workers, a lesson in productivity and wages with the stain on his record told plainly. Cash for Clunkers destroyed working cars in 2009 to stimulate the economy Washington paid people to trade in working cars, had the engines ruined on purpose, and later studies found it mostly moved sales forward in time. The Railroad Commission of 1887 That Became the Model for Every Federal Agency The ICC lived 108 years, from rate cop to railroad ally to casualty of deregulation, and its life story is the pattern for most agencies. PATCO 1981, the strike that ended with 11,000 controllers fired Reagan gave striking air traffic controllers 48 hours, then fired those who stayed out. The law behind it, the facts, and what it taught public unions. Bicycle Mechanics From Dayton Beat the Government-Funded Langley Into the Air Two Ohio bicycle makers with no degrees and no subsidy flew at Kitty Hawk nine days after a War Department-funded aircraft fell into the Potomac. Why Fox News in 1996 Proved There Was an Audience Nobody Was Serving A cable channel launched in October 1996 found a large audience almost at once, and that is market evidence about whom the rest of television news served. When Dateline Rigged a Pickup Truck to Burn and Then Apologized on Air NBC's 1992 Dateline segment used hidden igniters to help a GM truck burn on camera, then apologized in 1993. Why a staged picture is worse than a wrong fact. The Night a Network Bet Its Reputation on Memos Typed Like a Word File CBS aired Bush Guard memos in 2004 that bloggers doubted within hours; an independent panel faulted the process. The lesson: verify before you wish. A thought experiment where the grocery store gets rent control too A labelled satire applies rent control's rules to a supermarket, then matches each joke to a documented effect of the real policy. Detroit Bulldozed Poletown for a Car Plant and Michigan Took 23 Years to Repent In 1981 Michigan's high court let Detroit condemn Poletown for General Motors, and in 2004 the same court overruled itself, setting the stage for Kelo. When the City Wants Your Home for a Developer, the Steps to Fight Back Since Kelo many states limited eminent domain, but blight findings still put homes at risk, and an owner who acts early has real options. When a Health Agency Decided It Could Freeze Every Eviction in America The CDC stretched a 1944 quarantine statute to freeze evictions nationwide, and the Supreme Court rulings that followed show where agency power stops. Houston has almost no zoning, and its houses cost less to prove it Houston is the biggest American city without conventional zoning, and it builds. How it works, three votes against zoning, and the flooding objection answered. Rent control's record from Stockholm to San Francisco is the same story Economists of every stripe say rent control shrinks housing supply. Stockholm, New York, San Francisco and St. Paul show how, with the arithmetic. Levittown Built a Nation of Homeowners, and Ownership Built Citizens Levittown turned renters into owners with assembly-line homes and GI Bill loans. Its exclusion of Black buyers was wrong, and the case for ownership stands. A 94-Year-Old Lost Her Condo Over a Tax Debt and the Court Said Enough In Tyler v. Hennepin County a unanimous Supreme Court held that a county cannot keep a seized home's value beyond the tax debt, a plain property-rights win. Property Rights Are Human Rights Because People Hold Property, Not Things A property right is a person's claim to keep what his work produced, so the slogan setting human rights against property rights falls apart. Your ZIP Code Picks Your Child's School, the Case for Open Enrollment Attendance zones let housing prices ration good schools, and open enrollment opens the door to families who cannot afford the house. Seven Myths About Owning a Home That Cost First-Time Buyers Real Money Seven beliefs that sound like common sense and quietly drain first-time buyers, each tested against plain arithmetic and the record, with a verdict. Buy or Rent? One Family, One City and a Five-Year Worked Example Owning wins for families who stay and costs dearly for those who move in three years. A hypothetical family, worked year by year, with the break-even shown. The Takings Clause Explained, From Public Use to Just Compensation The Fifth Amendment protects property in two phrases, public use and just compensation, and courts have stretched the first while shrinking the second. Madison Wrote That Government Exists to Protect Property of Every Sort Madison's 1792 essay held that a man owns his opinions, conscience and labor as well as his land, and that only a government protecting all of it is just. Knick v. Scott Township Reopened the Federal Courthouse to Landowners For 34 years a rule locked landowners out of federal court on takings claims. Knick ended it in 2019, 5 to 4, and the Fifth Amendment is stronger for it. When the Bracero Program Ended, California Built a Tomato Harvester Growers warned of ruin when Congress ended the Bracero program in 1964, and instead California's tomato industry mechanized and grew. The Homestead Act of 1862 and the American Habit of Earning Your Own Ground The Homestead Act offered 160 acres to anyone who would live on the land and work it for five years, and made ownership through labor an American creed. The 1986 Law's Real Failure Was the Fake Document Industry It Created IRCA is remembered for amnesty, but its enforcement half failed on a good-faith document rule and its farm program drew fraud. Verification decides enforcement. Cattle Eat Grass, Grass Feeds Fires, and That Makes Grazing a Wildfire Policy Well-managed grazing removes the fine fuels that carry range fires, so cutting it on public land can worsen Western wildfires. Here is the case and its limits. Farmers Saved the Soil After the Dust Bowl, Long Before Earth Day Existed After Black Sunday in 1935, farmers and local conservation districts rebuilt the soil from the ground up. It is a model of stewardship that predates Earth Day. Keep the Farm a Farm With a Conservation Easement, Step by Step A conservation easement lets a family keep working its land while selling or donating the right to develop it. The steps, from choosing rights to the IRS rules. Why the Endangered Species Act Punishes the Landowner Who Helps a Bird The Endangered Species Act makes habitat a legal liability, so owners have a reason to clear it early. The record says the incentive is the problem. Seven States, One River and the 1922 Compact That Promised Too Much Water The 1922 Colorado River Compact divided water that was not there. Here is how it happened, what a century of lawsuits followed, and why markets beat allocation. Ranchers on the Line and the Property Rights Fight at the Southern Border Border families bear the cost of a porous line, yet barriers can mean taking their land. Conservatives owe them an answer that honors security and property. Lincoln, Justin Morrill and the Land Grant That Built the State University The Morrill Act of 1862 funded colleges of farming and the mechanic arts with federal land, not federal management, and it still asks what a university is for. Does the Commerce Clause Reach a Red Wolf That Never Leaves the County The Endangered Species Act reaches animals that never cross a state line on a broad reading of the Commerce Clause. The court fights show why limits matter. The death tax, the family farm and the case for ending a tax on dying The estate tax raises a sliver of federal revenue while families spend heavily on lawyers and planning to avoid it, and it taxes money already taxed once. Locke Said Property Begins the Moment Your Labor Mixes With the Earth Chapter V of Locke's Second Treatise roots property in the ownership of your own labor, which makes taking property an attack on the person.